According to The New York Times, at least one weapons cache at a schoolbook warehouse had been ransacked, with numerous SA-7 and newer SA-24 missiles missing.

While international forces find the threat from these weapons credible, France has dispatched additional security to numerous civilian airports, it's impossible to secure all the weapons before falling into dealers hands.

There is some good news, however, the chemical weapons and poison gas belonging to Qaddafi appear to be safe.

This isn't the first time numerous or especially potent weapons have disappeared or gone unaccounted for.

From small-arms to nuclear bombs, nearly every kind of weapon you can think of has been lost by one nation or another.

U.S. nuclear weapons

The United States has lost at least 8 and possibly as many as 11 nuclear bombs in accidents. Most of these have vanished into the sea, but the worrying part is that they were never recovered.

200,000 American guns in Iraq

More than 200,000 rifles and pistols and 250,000 pieces of body armor and helmets are unaccounted for in Iraq. The equipment, given by the United States to the Iraqi army, could be stolen, in the hands of insurgents, or still being used by the Iraqi army, but nobody knows for certain.

USSR suitcase nukes and weapons-grade plutonium

Former Russian National Security Adviser Aleksandr Lebed, in an interview with 60 Minutes in 1997, claimed that the USSR had produced 250 suitcase-sized nuclear bombs and that 100 of them were unaccounted for. His claims were denied or discounted by a number of other former USSR officials, but Lebed stood by them.

Pakistani patrol carrying chemical weapons

AP

In 1999, a Pakistani Army patrol vanished in Kashmir. Afterwards, Pakistan accused India of using chemical weapons against their troops, but India asserted that it was the Pakistani patrol, in fact, who had the chemicals. Concerns about the security of Pakistani and Indian nuclear material has been a focus of the United States since both nations went nuclear, and Pakistan has accepted U.S. help in securing its resources.

Since then, some of these arms have fallen into the hands of the Taliban and insurgents currently fighting against the U.S., many of whom have ties to, or are the same, as the original men who fought against the Soviets.

Though China's nuclear arsenal is far smaller than that of the U.S. or Russia, there have been concerns over their dealings with terrorists and rogue nations in terms of technology and nuclear resources.